The Clare People Archive

CLARE on the radar. Two years ago, a sopping, soggy Fitzgerald Stadium housed a little over 6,000 punters for Kerry’s opening game in the 2006 championship. Waterford visited and brought almost as many fans as those that showed up for the home side.

It was late May and one of those days when the mountains behind the stand can only be felt and not seen, when the slate on St Finian’s Hospi- tal beyond the terrace turns black.

Nobody knew it at the time but that wet May afternoon was the begin- ning of Kerry’s shot at what has now become a three-in-a-row possibility.

It was difficult to predict the suc- cess that the two years since then would bring because for parts of that game, Waterford caused problems Kerry and in fact, should have been closer than the eight point winning margin that Kerry recorded. At one stage in the second half, Waterford could have drawn level but Andy Hubbard’s penalty was saved by D1- armuid Murphy and Gary Hurney’s follow-up was brilliantly taken off the line by Seamus Moynihan.

That game is recalled merely as a Starting point for all that has hap- pened for Kerry in 2006 and 2007. Even leaving the All-Ireland of 2004 aside, the current Kerry side has evolved into one of the finest teams to ever play football.

They’re fluid and powerful in at-

tack, composed and dogged in de- fence and since 2006 their approach has again evolutionised the game. Those qualities of power and com- posure were seen several times over the past two seasons but particularly at different stages of the Dublin and Monaghan games last year.

Against Monaghan, the ball was never passed laterally in their own half and against Dublin, only very

rarely. During both games, they dic- tated the pace at key moments as time was running out and they man- aged to score goals at crucial times. It’s unfair to say that the Clare chal- lenge doesn’t register on the Kerry radar this week and that alone, high- lights the approach in the county. Twenty years ago and as recent as ten — even including ’°92 -, Clare was seen as little more than something to

swat away.

Now, there are senior players who genuinely feel as though they’re play- ing for their place on the panel, not to mind the team. Two weeks back, a handful of Kerry players were gath- ered for extra training in Killarney. It was a backflip to Mick O’Dwyer’s days but shows that Kerry are taking the Clare challenge on board, if for no other reason than to nail down places for later in the year.

“There are potential pitfalls out there. I have always maintained that,” sayS Kerry manager Pat O’Shea. “Look at Wicklow beating Kildare in the Leinster championship. Look at Fermanagh beating Monaghan. They are two prime examples of teams getting turned over unexpectedly this season.

“*T have said that to the lads and they know that. Clare will come down here with nothing to lose and they will be full of confidence after their win against Waterford.

“Tt’s a tricky tie for us because we will, obviously, be that bit ring rusty while Clare will have the benefit of their game against Waterford. But the bottom line is this is a match that we are treating very seriously, like we do with all our games. If we don’t perform then there is a good chance that Clare will beat us. We have to be at our best.”

Down the tracks, the prospect of that third title looms, strange as it sounds considering that only two

years ago, the prospects of any coun- ty achieving back-to-back titles was considered slim.

“Being honest, we haven’t spoken about that [the three-in-a-row bid] in training and we don’t have any say in regards to what people write and what people say. All we can do is concentrate on our own game and take it match by match, one step at PIB une lee

‘“That’s what we did last year and we see no reason to change a win- ning formula. The only match on our horizon is Sunday’s against Clare.

“We try to make sure that the panel is stronger every year and I think that the Under-21’s All-Ireland win is a big boost.

“The league was encouraging also with a lot of players making a claim for starting spots so the task for me 1s to now find the best balanced 15 that can Start.”

“There were times in the league when we saw the fight, heart and hunger that a team that wants to be successful needs. It was very heart- ab eehee

“These lads have always proved that they can rise to the occasion, and they will have to do that against Clare. That’s the first step in what we hope will be a long journey.”

“A MOMENT of absolute stupidity” was how a Solicitor referred to an in- cident in which her client punched a garda in the face.

The remark was made in court in the case of Flan Ginnane (26), of Quay Road, Kildysart, who was

charged with assaulting Garda Alan Kelly, at Abbey Street, Ennis, in the early hours of March 3 last.

Defending solicitor Siobhan Mc- Mahon said her client was pleading cuilty.

Garda Kelly told Ennis District Court last Friday that he was dealing with Ginnane’s friends and he got in-

volved.

‘‘He punched me in the face. He ran off. I caught up with him,” said the eee

He said the accused apologised that night and again the following day.

Ms McMahon said that when her chent saw gardai approaching, he tried to intervene to help one of his

friends who was younger than him.

“Tt was a moment of absolute stu- pidity that led to this situation. He is petrified by the whole situation,” said the solicitor.

She said her client is a “genuinely decent person” who was highly thought of in his local community, where he had a deep involvement in

oh Osa0ae

“Tt is totally out of character,” she said.

Judge Joseph Mangan imposed a two-month jail term. But he will sub- stitute this with 240 hours commu- nity service if the accused is found suitable. He adjourned the case until next month.

AN ENNIS family whose home was burnt down a fortnight ago has been forced to move to temporary illegal accommodation in Limerick, the family’s solicitor has claimed.

The Mongans’ family home at Shalee Drive, Cloughleigh, Ennis was extensively damaged by fire on Saturday, May 24.

The revelation came as two mem- bers of the family appeared in court last Friday, charged in connection with an incident in Ennis last Octo- ber.

Christy Mongans Senior (49) and Jim Mongans (18), of Shalee Drive, were charged with violent disorder, at Cloughleigh, Ennis, on October 11 last year.

Garda Dominic Regan told Ennis District Court last Friday that he met both men by appointment on May 25 ENe

In reply to charge Mr Mongan

Senior replied, “I was not involved” while Jim Mongans did not reply to charge after caution, said the garda.

Defending solicitor Tara Godfrey said Mr Mongans Senior was not in ous

“He is unwell. He suffers from ser1- ous heart problems. The family home was burnt down recently and they are staying in temporary illegal accom- modation in Limerick,” she said.

She said Mr Mongans Senior’s doc- tor confirmed to her that he had not been in regular attendance, due to his ill health.

Inspector Tom Kennedy said he would accept what Ms Godfrey had to say.

The case was adjourned until Sep- tember.

TWO 15-year-old boys were “ush- ered down a laneway” in Ennis be- fore one was assaulted and the other had his mobile phone robbed, it has been alleged.

Raymond Constable (21) of O’Malley Park, Southill, Limerick, appeared before Ennis District Court last Friday, accused of robbing a mo- bile phone from one youth and as- saulting another, on April 10 last.

Inspector Tom Kennedy said that

the DPP had directed summary dis- posal of the case in the district court. Judge Joseph Mangan said he needed to make a determination on jurisdic- tion and sought an outline of the al- leged facts.

Inspector Kennedy said that the State would allege that two 15-year old boys were at Kelly’s Corner in Ennis at around 9pm.

He said the two met with the ac- cused and were “ushered down a laneway at the back of Fairways eT Aan

He said that one of the boys had his mobile phone “forcibly taken from him by Mr Constable” while he also had €8 taken from his pocket.

He said the phone, valued at €100, was later recovered but had been damaged.

He said that the other 15-year-old was assaulted by the accused, de- scribing the incident as a “minor as- SPOOL ae

Judge Mangan said he would ac- cept jurisdiction.

Inspector Kennedy told the court

that Mr Constable had previously ap- peared in court in April charged with handling stolen property.

He said that charge was being with- oles Mane

However, when he had _ been charged with that offence, a number of bail conditions had been imposed, including that the accused stay out of SEI

“A breach of that was detected. I’m asking for more stringent bail cond1- tions,’ said Inspector Kennedy.

Defending solicitor Tara Godfrey

said her client admitted he had come to Ennis to visit his mother. She asked the court to take this into con- sideration.

However, Judge Mangan replied, “The charges before the court are very serious charges and it is with some reluctance I’ve accepted juris- diction.”

JS Coir HUG Nat-T MUD MN Nelom-LeCeUIolO MMU: DOL KerG| to visit his mother, he should have in- formed gardai.

He remanded him in custody to re- appear in court later this month.

CLARE has distinguished itself once again in the Blue Flag environmental awards scheme.

Blue Flags have been awarded to Cappa Pier, Kilkee, White Stand/ Miltown Malbay, White Strand/ Doonbeg, Fanore and Lahinch as well as Mountshannon and Ballycug- geran on Lough Derg.

The Blue Flag is an international award for beach excellence. It 1s presented to beaches which have ex- cellent water quality, which provide a range of services and which fulfil other specified criteria including en- vironmental management and educa- tion.

Details of the award winners for 2008 were revealed by the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government, John Gormley on Monday.

This is the 20th year in which the Blue Flag programme has operated in Ireland. Blue Flags were awarded this year to 78 bathing areas and two marinas. This is a decrease of

three from the total of 83 awarded in 2007.

The minister noted that it was “dis- appointing for all when flags were lost especially as a large effort has been put into the Blue Flag programme at all of these locations”.

The losses are due to deterioration

in water quality in some areas, which resulted largely from the heavy rain- fall that we experienced last year. The Blue Flag scheme is operated by the Foundation for Environmen- tal Education (FEE), a non-Govern- mental organisation. The criteria for the award of Blue Flags, which are

determined by FEE, relate to water quality, facilities for visitors, beach management including litter control, environmental information and dis- OE NaB ELON DLAC

FEE operates through national bod- ies who are responsible for the ad- ministration of the Blue Flag scheme in their countries. The scheme in Ire- land is administered by An Taisce. The administering bodies inspect beaches and conduct an initial as- sessment of applications for Flags based on the previous year’s bathing water quality results and compliance with the other criteria of the scheme.

They are assisted in this task by a national jury comprised of members with appropriate qualifications/ex- pertise in environmental, conserva- tion, marine, and consumer interest areas. The recommendations from each national jury are subsequently assessed by FEE’s International jury, which determines actual Blue Flag AMEE OK

THREE of the five people injured in a road traffic collision near Ennis on Sunday evening have been trans- ferred to Limerick for further treat- ment while two others were expected to be discharged from hospital last night (Monday).

The two car crash occurred at Bal- lyline shortly after 6pm and left the N18 Ennis/Galway road closed for three hours. The closure also result- ed in traffic tailbacks stretching over three kilometres in each direction.

Gardai are investigating the pos- sibility that the driver of one vehi- cle was driving under the influence of alcohol. It 1s understood that the man was asked in hospital by gardai to provide a blood or urine sample which has been sent away for analy- SIS.

In an uncanny twist of fate, the crash happened just seconds after a

fleet of emergency vehicles passed the exact location on their way to an- other accident near Lough Cutra on the Clare/Galway border. That origi- nal crash was not a serious incident and the emergency services were not required there in the end.

When fire crews were alerted to the second crash, a third fire appliance was scrambled from Ennis along with another from Shannon Town. The fire tenders sent to the original incident also returned and attended the crash at Ballyline.

The two Peugeot cars, which were travelling in opposite directions, crashed at the entrance to the GAA pitch. Passing motorists and locals used a fire extinguisher and water on one of the cars after they saw what they believed to be smoke. It is un- derstood however the there was no fire and that powder from activated airbags gave the impression that one of the cars was smoking.

Four men and a woman were in- jured in the collision three of whom were able to get out of one vehicle themselves. They were treated at the scene by fire brigade first responders until four ambulances arrived at the incident. The occupants of the sec- ond car however had to be cut from

the vehicle by fire crews using spe- cialist cutting equipment.

Two of the injured were a husband and wife from County Galway, who had been travelling home from the currach races in Kilrush.

While none of the injuries are said to be life threatening, as part of a

new trauma bypass protocol, three of the patients have since been trans- ferred to Limerick for further treat- ment. The remaining two patients were due to be released from hospital ETS mp epeaele

A fire brigade spokesperson con- firmed, “Fire crews from Ennis were sent to an incident at Lough Cutra when a call was received about a second collision. One of those crews was sent back to the second incident while appliances were also sent from Ennis and Shannon to assist. Fire brigade first responders also assisted in treating some of the injured at the scene.”

Gardai in Ennis are investigating the incident and have asked for wit- nesses to contact Ennis station on 065 6848100.

FOR any reader who is not edu- cated in what the meaning of the word “minker” is or what part of your anatomy you would put “Rub- ber Dollies” on, For Focal Sake – the book that celebrates all of Ireland’s slang on a county-by-county basis, has just been released.

It was written by people from the 32 counties who gave a focal (or two)

about their county on www.slang.ie. The book is entitled For Focal Sake and contains over 500 slang terms.

Under the section for Clare slang, the book explains that the word “Jag (v) means “to shift, court, feek, see etc. someone, for example “Skutch out of it yee dirty feckers… go jag somewhere else.”

Gobaloon is “another word for a dope or eeyjit.” And of a fat person ‘That person is a lunchbox.”

“In October 2007 a competition was set up between the 32 counties of Ireland on www.slang.ie in order to capture the various nuances of our mudder tongue’, a spokesman for the book’s compilers said.

“Within a matter of months there were literally thousands of entries added to it by people from all over d’internet. The order of the counties in the book was determined by their placement on the www.slang.ie lead-

er-board on February 18. Cork was the outright winner of the competi- tion and as a result appears first in the book.

The book contains a general Irish slang section with 15 lessons about how we ‘spayke’ as well as a selec- tion of choice vocabulary. Lesson 13 deals with “drunken focal”.

“Trish people have a huge variety of adjectives to describe the various stages of drunken intoxication. When

they go on a “session” the following words might describe the resultant State: blithero, blocked, blootered, blotto, drunk, buckled, bunched, flamin’, flootered, full as a bingo bus, gallybandered, etc.”

The book also has 32 chapters, one for each county, which includes a profile on the county detailing songs, nicknames, funny place names and a paragraph describing it. Available from Eason’s the book costs €9.99.

claimed that the school

has failed to tackle problems there for too long.

“The children are not getting the

standard of education they should be

getting and this is causing problems

down the line when they go to sec- ondary school. The school and the board of management haven’t tack- led it properly and the children are the ones losing out. Parents will start voting with their feet. The school will close unless this is tackled ur- gently,” he said.

Chairman of the school’s board of management Brendan Quinlivan, said that the school underwent a routine whole school evaluation in November of last year, which high- lighted issues that should be tackled.

Mr Quinlivan added that the board of management “is aware of the con- cerns raised by parents and we are acting on those concerns”.

“We are using the facilities and resources available to us through the St Senan’s Education Office and we are keeping parents informed of what is being done.”

IMPACT trade union staff at En- nis General Hospital will take part in a lunchtime protest tomorrow (Wednesday) to highlight health service cuts.

Delays in getting oxygen to Clare patients in their homes and under- staffed social work teams are just two of the knock on effects of HSE staff shortages, according to the un- ion.

More than 2,500 health workers in the county will take part in the lunch- time protest, which is not expected to

affect patient care as staff will man the picket line on their lunch breaks.

Andy Pike, assistant general secre- tary for the mid-west region, said the staffing embargo had been nothing short of catastrophic for local serv- leon

Mr Pike claimed that from Decem- ber 2007 to March 2008 the HSE in the mid-west lost 137 whole time equivalents (full time staff) and, given the number of part time posts in the HSE, the true figure could be close to 200.

He said that the employment con- trols introduced in 2008 allowed a

vacancy to be filled only if a differ- ent post was suppressed, so the cost of filling one vacancy was the loss of another in a different part of the Service.

“Two environmental health of- ficer posts have not been replaced in County Clare.

‘This means that patients and the public are at increased risk due to the frantic fall in the number of inspec- tion carried out in hospitals and the community,’ he said.

‘Two physiotherapy posts in Clare are vacant resulting in the closure of community physio services in east

and south Clare which currently serve 42,000 people.

“Two posts are vacant in disability services in Clare resulting in delays in delivering oxygen to patients’ homes,” said the trade union repre- sentative.

“The adoption service in the mid- west is struggling to cope without key posts being filled.

“Service provision has all but stopped. Social work teams are now seriously understaffed across the mid-west, including two permanent posts in ClareCare that have been suppressed,’ he added.

‘Family support worker posts have been left vacant increasing demands on residential services for vulnerable children and clients. Two occupa- tional therapy posts have not been filled thus increasing waiting lists.”

He said budget constraints also make it difficult for staff to carry out their duties as all travel outside Clare being banned except with prior per- mission. Numerous posts in Limer- ick and north Tipperary also remain vacant.

IMPACT workers will be protect- ing across the country on Wednesday from 12.30pm to 2pm.

DEFENDING champions _ Tulla, Newmarket-on-Fergus, Clarecastle and Eire Og have nearly 50 senior championships titles between them, but lofty reputations counted for nothing as the Canon Hamilton Cup race was launched at the weekend with an eight-match programme.

These big four were the big casu- alties on weekend one, all of them left reeling after shock defeats that plunge them headlong into fights for senior championship survival in their respective groups.

Pride of place goes to Inagh/Kilna- mona though, who in their first senior championship game ever claimed the scalps of county champions Tulla on Sunday afternoon thanks to a thrill- ing 2-17 to 0-15 win in Cusack Park.

“This was a great day for us,” en- thused Inagh/Kilnamona mentor Noel Hehir afterwards. “We went into this championship not knowing what to expect, but determined to give it a real go. We did that today, especially in the second half and it’s brilliant to get off to a winning start, especially against the county ove Oey

And, if Inagh-Kilnamona’s heroics reflected the changing landscape of the senior championship, so did the victories of both Clooney-Quin and Clonlara. Both have come from the intermediate ranks in the last two years and threw their senior champ- onship markers down in their open- ing contests. Clooney-Quin inflicted a humiliating 3-17 to 2-7 defeat on 2007 Senior B champions Eire Og.

“We showed great character to come back after the two goals – they were an awful sucker-punch before half-time. The lads responded bril- liantly in the second half – a better team than us would have struggled after those goals,” said manager Pat O’Rourke.

Clonlara were equally impressive in dispatching renowned champion- ship battlers Ogonnelloe in Killaloe, even though they had to make do without their ace forwards, Darach Honan and John Conlan due to the Leaving Cert. Afterwards, manager Jim Gully did his best to douse the expectations building up around his team after their impressive entreé into senior hurling.

“TV’d be disappointed if we don’t make the quarter finals and it was important to start with a win, but we have to keep our feet on the ground. There could be a lot of twists and turns in this group yet,” said Gully.

There’s no need to douse expeca- tions in Newmarket-on-Fergus any- more – they were extinguished for the time being with their lamentable per- formance against Wolfe Tones, when they bowed out with a whimper in the second half of a forgettable con- test that launched the championship on Friday night.

Then there’s Kilmaley – the 2004 champions shocking 2005 winners Clarecastle, largely on the back of an inspirational performance from Co- lin Lynch, who was the outstanding player on view during the opening salvos of the Canon Hamilton race that’s now up and running until Oc- tober.